{"id":17004,"date":"2026-05-17T01:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/17004\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:25:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:25:25","slug":"car-ploughs-into-crowd-in-italys-modena-injuring-eight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/17004\/","title":{"rendered":"Car ploughs into crowd in Italy\u2019s Modena, injuring eight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A man drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, Mayor Massimo Mezzetti said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mezzetti told journalists in a briefing that a female German tourist was among those seriously injured, as was a person from Poland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The attack occurred in the afternoon in Modena\u2019s historic centre, where the vehicle sped into a street in the old town. According to the mayor, the driver deliberately mounted the pavement at high speed and struck a group of pedestrians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The suspect then attempted to flee, leaving the car while holding a knife, several witnesses reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bystanders pursued the man and managed to overpower him. He was arrested and questioned by police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">News agency ANSA cited prosecutor Luca Masini as saying that &#8220;there is a clear and evident intent to endanger public safety, not just the lives of the individual victims.&#8221; The 31-year-old suspect is facing charges including of aggravated assault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to reports, the man had received psychiatric treatment in the past, holds a degree in economics and has no prior criminal record. The suspect was born in the northern Italian city of Bergamo and grew up in the Modena area, reports said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Earlier, Mezzetti said in a video message that he was &#8220;deeply shaken&#8221; by what he described as a &#8220;mad incident.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Security camera footage showed the small car hitting several people, with some thrown into the air.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One woman was pressed against a shop window at the end of the car\u2019s path and suffered severe injuries, including the amputation of both legs, according to local media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ANSA cited authorities as saying that two of the injured had to have their legs amputated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the incident as &#8220;extremely serious&#8221; and expressed solidarity with the injured and their families, while thanking those who stopped the man. She said the suspect must be held accountable.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Police officers stand at the scene after a car incident in a street of Modena. A man drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, the mayor said. (zu dpa: \u00abCar ploughs into crowd in Italy\u2019s Modena, injuring eight\u00bb) -\/LaPresse via ZUMA Press\/dpa\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/093589c04f020e465283652839e67d27.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Police officers stand at the scene after a car incident in a street of Modena. A man drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, the mayor said. (zu dpa: \u00abCar ploughs into crowd in Italy\u2019s Modena, injuring eight\u00bb) -\/LaPresse via ZUMA Press\/dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12479,5,12437,12438],"class_list":{"0":"post-17004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-crowd","9":"tag-italy","10":"tag-massimo-mezzetti","11":"tag-modena"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}